Fireworks vendors hit with $2K fee hike

Tuesday

May 20, 2014 at 2:00 AM

SEABROOK — Fireworks vendors will now have to pay $2,000 more each year to sell combustible products because town officials are trying to recoup the costs required to inspect those buildings' safety and fire prevention measures.

Kyle Stucker

SEABROOK — Fireworks vendors will now have to pay $2,000 more each year to sell combustible products because town officials are trying to recoup the costs required to inspect those buildings' safety and fire prevention measures.

Selectmen unanimously increased the annual licensing fee for fireworks stores from $5,000 to $7,000 on Monday, much to the disdain of local fireworks vendors who feel "everyone is picking on" them.

"I respect you as a business owner, but when you put a tax on one certain business, it's not the fair thing (to do)," said Gateway Country Store owner Anthony Rizzo, who said he was behind the push decades ago to begin charging fireworks vendors like himself $5,000 to help the town get revenue. "To arbitrarily single out six stores (for an increase) when no other town is charging (fireworks vendors $5,000) ...; is discriminatory. Your tax revenues and reason for increasing the taxes on us isn't justified."

Seabrook has been evaluating a number of town policies in recent weeks as part of an effort to modernize ordinances and bring various fees in line with current town expenses. The fireworks licensing fee was identified as one of the outdated polices because Town Manager Bill Manzi said there is a "higher level of service due to fire inspections" at Seabrook's six fireworks stores than other businesses in town.

"The town has to survive," said Khan, who said the fireworks licensing fee was "looked into, among many other things," when the town began looking for additional revenue to offset the increased cost of services. "The town has our expenses going out equally."

Several fireworks vendors spoke out against this logic during Monday's public hearing on the change. Atomic Fireworks owner Steve Carbone, who just built a new, roughly $1 million storefront for his business, said increasing the fee for a business already "paying big money for taxes and property taxes" isn't fair because "every other business pays $25" for annual license renewals.

Carbone said the town's fireworks stores are currently "paying equal to 200 Walmarts" for a new license, even though he said Seabrook's many large retail chains utilize public safety services more frequently than the fireworks stores. He said increasing the fee would just exaggerate this discrepancy and make operating their businesses more difficult. He said fireworks stores are already losing money to states that are less restrictive on the types of fireworks that vendors can sell.

"We have a very small target and it gets smaller every year," said Carbone. "Personally, I think this is embarrassing this even came up."

Manzi said large businesses like Walmart had to pay "millions of dollars to get here" to Seabrook "because of some of the burden they place on our infrastructure." He said it's not entirely "accurate" to say those businesses haven't also footed large costs to conduct business in town despite the fact their initial licenses only cost $100 and their annual renewals are only $25.

Selectman Raymond Smith said the fireworks vendors raised "an excellent point," though, they "should not be the only ones" affected by a fee increase. He said he has "no objection" for looking at changing the fees for other businesses "across the board," although he said Monday wasn't the time to do that because selectmen were specifically focusing on the fireworks licensing fee.

"Your point is totally valid," said Smith. "Perhaps if you do it for one, you should do it for all."

In addition to exploring possible fee increases for other businesses, Khan said Monday he wants to explore the possibility of charging an additional sum to fireworks businesses that move their inventory to temporary second locations during different times of the year.

Khan suggested charging $2,500 for this and asked Manzi to explore a fee of this nature, although no motion was made Monday to guarantee that this type of supplemental fee would be instituted.

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